I've just come from reading some posts on another site, including some making very unsubtle attempts to frighten by using Barack Obama's middle name, and others justifying the tactic by saying things like "Hey, I have reads thousands of ‘Hillary Rodham Clintons’ and ‘John Sidney McCain’ references."
So I did a quick Google on the names, with and without the middle names. Here's what I found:
John McCain | 72:1 | John Sidney McCain |
Hillary Clinton | 13 915:1 | Hillary Diane Clinton |
Hillary Rodham Clinton | 162:1 | Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton |
Barack Obama | 9.4:1 | Barack Hussein Obama |
Another attempt at justification listed FDR, JFK, LBJ, Bill Clinton, Reagan, Bush Sr, Nixon and others and claimed that "All these were known by their full names and acted as if they had nothing to hide."
So for comparison:
Franklin Roosevelt | 1.3:1 | Franklin Delano Roosevelt |
Lyndon Johnson | 4.1:1 | Lyndon Baines Johnson |
Ronald Reagan | 81:1 | Ronald Wilson Reagan |
Richard Nixon | 22:1 | Richard Milhous Nixon |
(I've haven't taken account of misspellings. And I haven't bothered with Bill Clinton, because of the complication of Bill/William, or Kennedy or Bush, because of the commonness of the names.)
Doesn't prove anything but it does seem to show that Obama's middle name is used much more often than his rivals'. And the ratios for FDR and LBJ aren't much shorter and they're known by their full names customarily.
Incidentally, Clinton beats both Obama and McCain on a count of hits. "Barack Obama" scores 6 million and "John McCain" scores 7½ million. "Hillary Clinton" scores 13½ million. Add "Hillary Rodham Clinton", at the risk of double-counting, and she scores 18 million.
So we can see who should be the next president...
"Ron Paul" 24½ million.
